Saturday, November 06, 2004

The movie industry is one of the enemy's primary indoctrination tools for the US and for people around the world who embrace American pop culture. Movie theaters are like temples for postmodern worshipers. Inside these places of "idol" worship (isn't that what many stars are called?), audiences are exposed to everything from serial killings, rapes, incest, adultery, and much more...all in the name of entertainment, the pop culture's god.

Two films I read about recently that I find particularly appalling, even in these dark times, are Birth, a movie about a woman's reincarnated husband, now 10 years old, coming to claim her before she marries her live-in fiance, and Saw, a film about a serial killer's torturing of his victims (in a nutshell).

It's not that surprising that the film industry is promoting and glorifying themes of pedophilia, murder and psychological torture; but I see in both of these movies an "upping" of the ante.

Even many non-Christians see the inherent depravity of pairing an adult woman with a ten year old CHILD as love interests: a screening of Birth at a film festival--where crowds are usually hungry for novel things and ready to embrace "new visions"--drew widely-reported boos and hisses as Nicole Kidman's character shared a bath with the boy claiming to be her reincarnated husband. Regardless of the context, this movie has the effect of giving credibility to pedophiles (see, she's in love! It's not a boy--it's really her dead husband!).

I don't really even want to go into Saw's story, it's so revolting. See the review above if you want to know more of what it's about. But check out this particular portion of what the reviewer had to say:

"Touting torture as a treat becomes the heart of Saw—something that should automatically send most morally minded moviegoers running for the exits. And yet, sadly, it won’t.

In all honesty, Saw's perverse pictures weren't the most disturbing things I saw while reviewing it. It was disconcerting enough to sit in a theater full of mothers with their 8-year-old boys in tow and groups of 12-year-old girls chaperoned by solitary adults. It was nearly intolerable to witness them—kids and adults—applauding when a man onscreen got his brains bashed in. And laughing when Lawrence sobbed helplessly on the cell phone while his wife and daughter struggled at gunpoint with their kidnapper.

So in the end, Saw may say even more about the people who see it than it does about the people who created it."